South Africa public holidays 2026

South Africa 2026

The calendar above is already set to South Africa holidays for 2026, ready to download as a PDF. Below is the full list, the weekday each holiday falls on, and the long weekends they create.

How holidays work in South Africa

All 12 public holidays

DateDayHoliday
January 1ThursdayNew Year's Day
March 21SaturdayHuman Rights Day
April 3FridayGood Friday
April 6MondayFamily Day
April 27MondayFreedom Day
May 1FridayWorkers' Day
June 16TuesdayYouth Day
August 10MondayNational Women's Day
September 24ThursdayHeritage Day
December 16WednesdayDay of Reconciliation
December 25FridayChristmas Day
December 26SaturdayDay of Goodwill

These are the dates as officially observed. Where a country moves a day off because the holiday itself falls at a weekend, the moved date is the one shown, which is why a date here can differ from the traditional one.

Long weekends in 2026

Stretches of three or more days off in a row, counting weekends and nationwide public holidays together. Holidays that apply only to some regions are left out, since they would not give most people the day off.

DatesDaysBecause of
April 3 – April 64Good Friday, Family Day
April 25 – April 273Freedom Day
May 1 – May 33Workers' Day
August 8 – August 103National Women's Day
December 25 – December 273Christmas Day, Day of Goodwill

Holidays that fall at a weekend

2 holidays fall on a Saturday or Sunday in 2026, and South Africa does not shift them to a weekday:

Print it

The generator at the top of this page marks every holiday listed here. The calendar language is a separate setting, so you can print South Africa holidays with month names in any of 58 languages — or switch the holidays off and keep a plain calendar.

Other years

Other countries